6 Months Since Sandy - We're Live From Atlantic City!

In the days following Hurricane Sandy late last year, the pictures of devastation emerging from the southern coast of New Jersey shocked the public. Reports pegged thousands displaced from the Atlantic City area, a community underwater, without power.

"The city is under siege," Atlantic City's Chief of Emergency Management Thomas Foley told the New York Times on October 30th. Officials reported that by 8 a.m. that morning, 70 to 80 percent of the city was already submerged—as in, the ocean.

An afternoon curfew was imposed, casinos shut down, hundreds of people were stranded, thousands were displaced in shelters outside of town.

A single 50-foot piece of the boardwalk—which would, over the next weeks somehow become emblematic in the public consciousness of the destruction suffered in the east coast gambling mecca—was wrecked.

(Getty Images) Atlantic City on October 30, 2012. It doesn't look anything like this anymore.

It didn't seem all that incongruous with what had happened elsewhere in the region—parts of the Jersey Shore's beloved Seaside Heights had washed away, entire communities in Staten Island were largely destroyed (and forgotten), parts of Queens and Brooklyn had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, and half of Manhattan lay dark and deserted—like a post-apocalyptic abandoned urban wasteland below 30th Street.

Like other communities that bounced back from the storm wreckage, Atlantic City soon recovered. But while casinos reopened and tourist attractions got up and running within days and weeks of the storm, perception of the damage done has far outlasted the city's Sandy scars. According a recent poll, about 25 percent of the country—and 32 percent of the Northeast region—believes Atlantic City's legendary boardwalk was completely washed away in the hurricane.

But the boardwalk is still there, intact. And so is the city.

Since November, Atlantic City has waged a battle against public perception—and this week, on the six month anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, we wanted to come see it for ourselves.

(Getty Images) Caesar's celebrates Boardwalk Empire in 2010

All week long, StyleBistro will be bringing you live day-by-day coverage of all our favorite things about this great American seaside resort city. Our editors will chronicle their own days in photo journals—look out for the first installments this morning!—and we'll be featuring some of our favorite spas, getaways, hotels, restaurants, and itineraries. Plus, we'll tell you all about where some of your favorite shows—like Boardwalk Empire and Sex and the City—were filmed on location in AC!

Make sure to tune into our dedicated Atlantic City page all week. This is one of our all-time favorite getaway destinations on the East Coast, and we're so excited to share it with you.